World-News

Australian man convicted of “preparing terrorism”: In a case that sets a number of disturbing precedents for the political use of Australian “counter-terrorism” laws, a Sydney Muslim man faces life imprisonment after being convicted on circumstantial evidence of preparing to commit an unspecified terrorist act.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/terr-j21.shtml


From Information Clearing House

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday demanded that Afghanistan revoke recent National Security Directorate rules that restrict the freedom of the press and effectively ban journalists from writing about Afghanistan's failing security situation.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/06/rights-group-condemns-afghanistan.php


From Information Clearing House

Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the international community to reassess its approach to the war on terror Thursday, saying the deaths of hundreds of Afghans in fighting with U.S.-led forces was “not acceptable.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13724.htm

The Iraqi Trade Minister threatened today to impose a national boycott on Australian wheat and other exports after Australian soldiers mistakenly shot dead one of his bodyguards.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2237847,00.html


From Information Clearing House

By John Pilger

Arriving with a force of 2,000, an Australian brigadier flew by helicopter straight to the headquarters of the rebel leader, Major Alfredo Reinado - not to arrest him for attempting to overthrow a democratically elected prime minister but to greet him warmly. Like other rebels, Reinado had been trained in Canberra.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13718.htm
http://tego.elequity.com/index.php?topic=18.0

A 24-point guideline paper, possibly from the intelligence department, has been issued to local and foreign media organisation asking them to abide by the rules mentioned in paper.

http://tinyurl.com/gbchp


From Information Clearing House

Three Afghan policemen have been killed after US-led coalition troops shot at their vehicle by mistake in eastern Kunar province, the US military says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5101584.stm


From Information Clearing House

They grabbed Jamal Ludin as he left for morning prayers. The 32-year-old grape farmer said he had been lined up beside a ditch with 50 other men and thrashed with wooden poles and an electric cable. "They said, 'Tell us where are the Taliban'," he said.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13708.htm

Over the past decade Vibration & Sound Solutions Ltd., a small Alexandria defense contractor, has received a steady flow of federal contracts to work on "Project M" - $37 million in all from annual "earmarks" by Congressional supporters such as Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.).

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061906N.shtml

As fighting in Afghanistan has intensified over the past three months, the US military has conducted 340 airstrikes there, more than twice the 160 carried out in the much higher-profile war in Iraq, according to data from the Central Command, the US military headquarters for the Middle East.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061806B.shtml

Washington carried out 340 airstrikes in that time frame, "more than twice the 160 carried out in the much higher-profile war in Iraq", the report said.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=129088


From Information Clearing House

A sensitive UN report that has been shelved for the past 18 months accuses leading Afghan politicians and officials of orchestrating massacres, torture, mass rape, and other war crimes in the country over 23 years of conflict.

http://tinyurl.com/fgh5c


From Information Clearing House

The aid flowing to Afghanistan is only a fraction, per capita, of what Kosovo and even East Timor received, and much of it has entirely bypassed the Afghan Government, leading to the emergence of what the World Bank has called a "second civil service" of UN agencies and private commercial contractors, receiving rewards that are astronomical by Afghan standards, but doing little to foster local capacity. Not enough is trickling down to ordinary Afghans.

http://tinyurl.com/jy7mg


From Information Clearing House

The vote was 93-6 to shelve the proposal, which would have allowed "only forces that are critical to completing the mission of standing up Iraqi security forces'' to remain in 2007.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5889377,00.html


From Information Clearing House

The US military launched an inquiry after a video showing an Aegis Defence Services contractor firing at civilian cars in Iraq was shown on the internet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5080970.stm



Under the Aegis

Channel 4 Video Report: "We don't know whether it was an innocent civilian or whether that was an insurgent - we don't know, because we never stop".

http://www.channel4.com/player/playerwindow.html?id=4089&vert=news


From Information Clearing House

Local residents accused the Americans of targeting civilians and a man wearing a white dishdasha held up the charred body of a toddler whose head had been blown in half.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13595.htm



US test fire kills three Iraqis

The US military has admitted that three Iraqi civilians killed in an explosion on Friday died because of an artillery training exercise that went wrong.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5047098.stm


From Information Clearing House